Are you a disaster in the kitchen? An occasional agoraphobic in cut-throat grocery stores? How about you give yourself (and your family) a break from dried-out stuffing and store-bought pie this holiday and spend this Thanksgiving eating food lovingly made by paid professionals. Whether you’re looking for a traditional turkey dinner or a modern twist on America's annual 7,000 calorie meal, Phoenix restaurants are prepared to deliver. With both pre-order and dine-in options, these restaurants give you an alternative choice to high stress levels and the very real possibility that you will have to wash every single dish in your kitchen.

It helps drive business in and, most importantly, it gives us an opportunity to showcase the restaurant to new diners.

What will be on your Arizona Restaurant Week menu?

What works best for us is to put things on the menu that are representative of the Stockyards. We’ve been here 70 years next year and we are very beef-centric, obviously, and we stay true to that with our core menu. We do a three-course meal. [You get a] choice of house salad and we always offer three soups: a tenderloin chili, steak soup and a soup of the day. For entrées, we do an 8 oz. filet and a 16 oz. cut of prime rib and then we also do seafood gratin with lobster, shrimp and scallops baked in a garlic cream sauce with garlic toast. We offer three of our most popular desserts: pecan pie that we make in house, sour cream cheesecake and a chocolate layer cake.

How do you compete against the big steak chains?

You just have to be good every day – there’s an old adage in the restaurant business – “You’re only as good as your last meal served.” It’s really true and I honor that. It doesn’t matter how good you were yesterday, you have to do it again today and you have to do it with every plate. Our dinners include a relish tray and a bread basket with biscuits and cornbread with honey butter (also included on the Restaurant Week menu). Dinner always comes with a choice of soup or salad and a potato. When you add $10 for a salad and $10 for a potato (at a steak chain), you’re $20 more than I am for the same dinner, and we’re going to stick with that.

Arizona Restaurant Week is back! Its fall iteration takes place Sept. 16-25, with more than 100 restaurants participating across the state. Restaurants will offer three-course menus at $33 and $44 per person (excluding tax, gratuity and beverages, unless otherwise indicated).

Chef Mel Mecinas is working his communal culinary magic again this year. The executive chef of Talavera at the Four Seasons Scottsdale first cooked up his “Monthly Mashup” dinner series last year, bringing fellow notable chefs like Silvana Salcido Esparza into his kitchen to collaborate on four-course epicurean adventures. This year, Mecinas brought a whole new crew into his kitchen to share the duties of producing deliciousness.

Eat and drink your way through the Valley with our delectable daily dispatches on everything from craft cocktail bars to mom-and-pop neighborhood spots. To get food-and-bev news delivered to your inbox, sign up for our Eat Beat newsletter.